He made statues in ancient Greek cities: Who is Alkameneos?

The most important Greek cities of 2500 years ago were decorated with his statues.

Alkamenes: 440 BC. The sculptor who became famous in Lemnos and Athens. He is a student of Phidias. He made numerous statues of divine figures in gold, ivory, bronze, and marble. Blacksmith Hephaestus and Aphrodite of the Gardens are his most important sculptures.

Alcamenes was an ancient Greek sculptor of Lemnos and Athens, who flourished in the 2nd half of the 5th century BC. He was a younger contemporary of Phidias and noted for the delicacy and finish of his works, among which a Hephaestus and an Aphrodite of the Gardens were conspicuous.

(5th century BC) Ancient Greek sculptor. In a period when dramatic elements and expressive tendencies gained weight in Greek art, he produced products reflecting these features. He was born on the island of Lemnos. He became a student of Pheidias and gained fame with the final work of some of his works. Important examples of these works are the statues of Hephaestus the Blacksmith and Aphrodite of the Gardens located in the Agora of Athens. It is understood from a written record that the bust of Hermes Propylaios in Pergamon is also his work. The ruined Prokne and his son Itys, a marble statue group on the Acropolis, is thought to be an original work of Alkameneos. It is known that Alkameneos, whose life and works are not known much, died in Athens.

During the time of Alkameneos, Greek theater reached a mature stage, and moving compositions and dramatic expression came to the fore in sculpture. Like Pheidias, the works of Alkameneos also have these artistic features of the period. According to Pausanias, a Greek traveler who lived in the 2nd century B.C., the statues of the triangular pediment on the western façade of the temple of Zeus in Olympia are the product of Alkameneos. However, this claim is far from certain and most likely false. On the pediment in question, the figures were not shown in disproportionate sizes with each other as in the past but were placed in a triangular frame with the arrangement of their movements, and some beliefs and stories were rendered in a way that enlivens them. It is important to think that the pediment may have been made by Alkameneos because of these features, even if it is not true, in terms of giving an idea about the style of the artist.